I know it was already suggested in previous comments, but I do not see the black bar? Was it removed already?
Lynn Conway has died
361–370 of 429 posts
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#362I know it was already suggested in previous comments, but I do not see the black bar? Was it removed already?
never mind, I answered my own question :) I just realized it is only so long as the article/news of the death of the individual is at the top of HN.
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#363lots of progress in transgender issues since then because of people like lynn conway. Because of people like her, fewer people will lose their careers (or have to rebuild) or kids just because they corrected their gender.
I’m one of those many who owe her a debt of gratitude. May her memory be a blessing.
As am I
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#364How touching to read so many appreciative comments
A life well spent
RIP Lynn, may the earth be light on you
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#365lots of progress in transgender issues since then because of people like lynn conway. Because of people like her, fewer people will lose their careers (or have to rebuild) or kids just because they corrected their gender.
Indeed. I certainly didn't lose mine when I transitioned in July 2017. In fact, I helped my company's HR department figure out how to handle it, as I was also a support group facilitator and had access to information that could help. Literally, I took a Thursday and Friday off (Thursday being the day my name change was granted) and came back as Amy on Monday. My cubicle nameplate had already been replaced, and someon…
I am glad you had such a warm welcome :)
I too, did not lose my job either; however, my reception was not as nice as yours. I moved on ten months or so later, and getting a "fresh start" where I was not known for anything other than my bona fides and my cv/resume, was wonderful.
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#366She was and remains a huge inspiration to many of us. I remember peering over her pages of "Transgender Success Stories" which chronicled trans people who led lives with some measure of success in the 90s and early 2000s. When I came out to my parents as a EE student and trans woman myself, her story was the one resource I made them read. To no avail, mind you, my father called me brainwashed and told me the journey I was on was the "Con Way". I didn't listen and although I never lived up to her professional achievements, my transition was very successful.
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate her making the effort to tell her story. I struggle sometimes to understand what it means when people say they feel born in the wrong gender. They way she describes it - not just about wanting to do 'girl' things but wanting to be soft and round and feminine - is eye-opening for me.
I think that many struggle to understand because they think something like "how would it feel to want to be a woman", rather than flip it to their gender. So if you're a cis man, try to imagine you were a trans man; born female, raised a girl, expected to conform to your local female beauty norms, be expected to bear children, less body hair and muscle mass, curves in places unfamiliar to you, flirted with by men, et…
Exactly. As a cis man the closest I have experienced was being mistaken for a girl (both as a kid and later when I had long hair) and getting cat-called or receiving unwanted sexual comments from strangers.
Those situations were rapidly defused when the people in question realized I was male (although as an adult I was genuinely worried it might result in violence if I didn't also ensure they understood I was straight) but I can't imagine what it would be like when most people wouldn't and would insist I'm a gender I'm not. Especially if my body also unhelpfully changed through hormone washes in ways that contradict my gender identity.
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is a known, massively complex, relationship between sex and gender but it's not 1:1 You could argue though that it's only complex because we (collectively) decided to complicate it in order to accommodate the preferences of small subsets of society. In some other country, society might collectively decide not to accommodate said wishes and instead treat sex and gender as immutable and indistinguishable. Such…
Prior to Mendel, sex and gender were both based on primary sex characteristics. One could argue that's an even simpler model.
And trans people still existed, just had impossibly harder lives than now. Why do we want to return to that?
Re: Lynn Conway has died
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has little to do with human society. Western society, maybe. Plenty of other societies don't assert a distinct binary for gender (which doesn't even exist in sex; intersex people exist at the same rates as people that are red-headed, and you wouldnt call red heads unnatural). Even if it was "natural" you're making the choice to treat someone like shit. You can backpedal onto what all your peers are doing all you…
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Re: Lynn Conway has died
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
She did. This was from 2000: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-19-tm-54188...
Some more of Lynn's recollections with her kids/nieces at https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Retrospective5.html#... , https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Retrospective5.html#... , and https://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/Retrospective6.html
Thanks - glad she found closure and also happiness in the end.